A 13-year-old girl in China reportedly spent her father’s entire life savings of 180,000 yuan (around RM117,000) on online anime-style art commissions after becoming obsessed with “2D culture”, leaving her family devastated.
The teenager, identified by the pseudonym Meimei, is from Sanmenxia in China’s Henan province. According to local media reports, she spent the money commissioning customised illustrations from online artists over a short period of time without fully realising how much she had used.
Her family’s situation was described as extremely difficult. Meimei’s mother reportedly suffers from schizophrenia, while her father, Mr Xue, sustained brain damage and cognitive impairment after a carbon monoxide poisoning incident last year.
Relatives said Mr Xue trusted his daughter completely and had given her access to his mobile phone and bank card passwords. Due to a lack of supervision at home, Meimei was allegedly able to repeatedly transfer money from multiple accounts to support online artists, a practice known among fans as “raising artists”.
The shocking discovery was only made when Mr Xue recently attempted to pay for car repairs and realised the balances in three bank accounts had nearly been wiped out.
In tears, he said the 180,000 yuan represented years of hard-earned savings from working away from home and was originally meant to secure his daughter’s future.
“This was all the money I earned after working outside for years. I wanted to save it for my daughter, but now it’s all gone,” he reportedly said.
Overcome with guilt, Meimei broke down crying and told her father: “I don’t deserve to be your daughter.”
Despite his heartbreak, Mr Xue comforted her, replying: “Don’t say whether you deserve it or not, my daughter.”
Meimei later admitted she had become deeply immersed in anime and online fandom culture, commissioning around 179 artworks through various online platforms. The prices reportedly ranged from a few dozen yuan to several thousand yuan per piece.
She said she had linked four of her father’s bank cards to online payment platforms and gradually lost awareness of how much money was being spent.
“I got too obsessed. I lost all sense of money,” she admitted.
The family is now attempting to contact the online platforms involved in hopes of recovering part of the money through complaints or legal action to help support their daily living expenses.
The incident has sparked widespread discussion online in China, with many calling for stronger parental supervision of minors’ online spending and better protection of financial information, especially for vulnerable families.
